Grade:  A

Director:  Daniel Myrick, Eduardo Sanchez		Released:  July 1999
Writer:  Daniel Myrick, Eduardo Sanchez		MPAA Rating:  R
Players:  Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard, Michael C. Williams		Running time:  86 minutes

Ratings System

If you made a point to see The Blair Witch Project summer of 1999, you were scared before you even walked into the theatre.  You heard it was the scariest thing since The Exorcist.  You weren't entirely sure if it was a true story or not.  And you visited the website which confused you even further.  When you settled into your seat at the show, you had no idea what to expect, and you could feel the tension from the crowd because they were feeling the same way.

That, my friends, is what a true "event movie" is all about.  It's the experience of seeing something you've never seen before, in a unique situation, at a one-time-only place and time.  Like when Jaws opened in 1975 it was a movie that you just HAD to see because it was a bona fide phenomenon beyond the bounds of a regular film ... not because some big marketing machine was forcing it down your throat, TELLING you it was a big event movie.

There is no formula at work, no cliches to be found, no recycled plot or characters, this is all original and all unpredictable.  The truth is that most of the film is not all that scary, it's just 3 kids lost in the woods.  When tensions get high, it sets up the characters to REALLY be afraid when the freaky stuff starts to happen.  As the audience, we feel like we are in the woods with them, like we're eavesdropping voyeurs following them around.  Because we are put right into the action the scary scenes work very well.  This is such a great concept I'm surprised nobody came up with it before.  I guess only film students have the creativity to come up with original ideas any more.

- crocoPuffs